The total number of murders in St. Louis, Missouri reached 158 in 2014, with 2013 figures slightly lower, with about 120 reported deaths. The 2014 figure is the highest since 2008, when there were 167 criminal homicides recorded, the newspaper said.
The real homicide rate may also be even higher due to the fact that at least four other deaths are still under investigation by St. Louis medical examiners. Moreover, two-thirds of all murder cases in the city remain unsolved.
According to statistics, obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the total number of violent deaths in St. Louis County, including the city of St. Louis, is estimated to be 190.
The exact reason for the rise in homicides is unclear. However, St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson cited the "Ferguson effect", explaining that the killing of the African-American teen Michael Brown by a police officer, may have ignited an escalation in violence in the city, according to the newspaper.
Dotson also suggested that the rise in murders may have something to do with fact that the police were forced to stop carrying out regular patrols in order to monitor civil unrest that spread across the country.
Earlier this year, an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, was shot dead by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis.
In November, a grand jury decided not to charge Wilson with the fatal shooting. The jury's decision resulted in massive nationwide protests calling for an end to police brutality in the United States
